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Quality all-rounders are the type of player every selector and captain wishes they had.

In Australia’s case, ever since Andy Flintoff impacted so heavily on the 2005 Ashes series, the search and experimentation has been seemingly never ending.

The likes of Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds and Steve Smith were all seen at some point as being the talisman they were looking for.

But, across the board, who are the top-10 Test all-rounders since 1970 and who indeed is the number one?

Before we start the countdown, let’s have a look at some who have failed to make the cut.

Wasim Akram was a man who really failed to do enough with the bat. In 104 Tests he averaged a mere 22.6 in concert with his 414 wickets at 23.6.

Former West Indian captain Carl Hooper averaged 36.5 with bat and compiled 13 centuries, but his 114 wickets came at 49.4.

Early on Steve Waugh was a genuine all-rounder but, given at the end of a 168 Test career he had captured only 92 wickets and very seldom bowled for the back half of his time in the baggy green, he has been left out.

Perhaps the unluckiest is former Indian skipper Ravi Shastri. In 80 Tests he amassed 3830 runs at 35.8 with 11 centuries, the highest of which was 206 against Australia at the SCG in Shane Warne’s maiden Test in 1990-91.

He also claimed 151 wickets at 41.0 with two five-wicket hauls, but that high average has seen him miss the cut.

So let’s start in reverse order en route to the best all-rounder since 1970.

Flintoff was somewhat of an enigma. When he was on-song he could be an absolute match-winner, as witnessed by his 2005 Ashes performance when he led the England bowling attack, capturing 24 wickets at 27.3. But with that he averaged over 50 with the ball in seven of his 25 series.

He could be genuinely quick and hit the pitch hard, extracting steepling bounce. He struggled with injury in the second half of his career.

With the bat, he was like most all-rounders, a lusty hitter who often took the aerial route. He struggled against Sri Lanka, averaging 19.3 from 14 innings.

The late Tony Greig was a cricketer of abundant enthusiasm and a true fighting quality. He was just shy of his 26th birthday when he made his Test debut and his career only lasted five years, cut short in the main by World Series Cricket.

He was one of the early exponents of the horizontal bat at above bail height in the stance. He compiled centuries against varying attacks, from the likes of Andy Roberts and Michael Holding to Bishan Bedi and B.S. Chandrasekhar.

His highest score of 148 was made on a dusty Mumbai track in 1972-73 while his most memorable ton was his 110 at the Gabba against Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. He thrived with the bat away from home, Averaging 46.9 against 34.6 at home.

With the ball he was a whirl of arm and legs, using his height (198cm) to deliver either medium pace or off-spin depending on the conditions.

His best bowling in both an innings and a match were against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1973-74.

Born into a famous South African cricketing family, Pollock was always destined to be a star. A technically correct lower order batsman, it is fair to say that he underperformed slightly in that aspect of his game but, given his workload with the ball (all-time highest wicket-taker for his country), he can be excused.

His centuries came against Sri Lanka and West Indies, while he averaged 42.3 in 12 Tests against Pakistan.

Like Greig, he was better on the road – 36.4 versus 29.1. He averaged 35.8 from his nine Tests in Australia.

With ball in hand he was reminiscent of McGrath and Hadlee with a metronomic line from stump to stump. He was genuinely quick early on but soon pulled back his pace.

His innings career-best came in Adelaide in 1997-98.

Tune in tomorrow for the top five.

Glenn Mitchell

After 21 years as a sports broadcaster with the ABC, since mid-2011 Glenn Mitchell has been freelancing in the electronic and written media. He is an ambassador for mental health in Australia, and tweets from @mitchellglenn.

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The Crowd Says (82)

i am glad you ranked Flintoff no higher than 8. really even his 2005 ashes series of 24 wickets at 27 is good without being brilliant.
i also think that Vettori just gets in, he wouldn’t have taken that many wickets or got a run at most other countries. a bowliong average of 34 is not really world class

What? Averaging almost five wickets per Test at 27 AND making crucial runs isn’t brilliant?

He wasn’t England’s best bowler in that series – that was Simon Jones. But Flintoff’s stats are freakish! To make the runs he did and take almost five wickets per Test – that’s incredible. Honestly, at his peak in that series, he compares to the best ever allrounders. Unfortunately he didn’t sustain that greatness!

And his impact was greater than those stats too.

This over said it all –

Flintoff isn’t as great as Kahn, Hadlee, Botham, Dev, Kallis, etc, in terms of being a great allrounder, but in the 2005 Ashes he was as effective as any of those players.

I’d say Imran was the best allrounded since 1970, but Kallis is getting up there. Great as Kallis is, I think his stats overestimate his impact. That’s not to say he hasn’t had a huge impact, or that he might just be SA’s best ever cricketer.

Good clip and analysis Frank O’Keefe. That’s like a bull ring, an ancient Roman Gladiator Colosseum, such a roar.
Not nessecarily the highest standard cricket ever played over a series but right up there, but for sheer energy and hype, and adrenilan pumping feeling alive energy, that;s the best test series I have watched. Some of those Australia VS West Indies test series in the 70’s and 80’s were amazing,and a few VS England too.

Lillee bowling Richards on the last ball of the day “can you believe that”, that was a roar. And Border and Thompson almost winning the test vs England too, and of course Headingley 1981, and also the West Indies 1 run win in Adelaide when there world title under threat, get in and win by the skin of there fingernails. Ambrose/Bishop/Walsh that day bowled seriously world class defending such a small total in Adelaide. And Warne’s 7 wicket at the G in 2nd innings. Love how he bowled Ritchie RIchardson. That 1992/3 series in OZ, was end to end stuff, so many good memories , Lara’s double Hundred, languor’s gritty 50, Curtley having a spell of 7 for 1.
And the ODI series with them and Pakistan was 1st class, plus when Deano got Curtley fired up without he sweat bands.

And STH Africa at the SCG 1993/4 FDevilliers and Alan Donald were magnificent, I enjoyed that whole 1993/4 series vs South Africa a lot.

Eden Gardens 2001 2nd test still was so special, Laxman,Dravid, and Harbajhan SIngh, were amazing and Eden Garden’s is as awesome and intimidating an atmosphere you can get when full and India are doing well.

That over summed up Flintoff. Wasn’t the greatest all rounder but produced talismanic spells. Even in 2009 with the Ponting run out. Flintoff in the side seemed to have the ability to do what was needed at the right time.

Warnie was the man for that series. Even more than Freddy, .Warnie was phenomenal,takeing 40 wickets, in a high pressure series, and he made vital runs at crucial times, and was basically half captaining and coaching the side. A 1 man team just about. England even in there peak still couldn’t handle Warney.
Warney really carried that aussy team in that series, much the same way Kapil Dev had to carry India bowling wise, and also chip in with the bat. Warney’s 2005 series is the greatest all round series contribution i can think off, in a big series, thanks peeko for reminding everyone.

When did Sobers’ career finish? 1972 I think. Cutting it fine to fit him in!

Ignoring Sobers, I would say that as pure all rounders, toss up between early career Botham and Kallis. Kallis doesn’t take bags of wickets but is incredible with consistency and longetivity. Botham pre about 1983 was amazing, but fell away. For mine, Dev, Hadlee and Imran didn’t bat quite as well as IB but were all better bowlers.

Jake, given he debuted in 1954 I did not include him. I applied the same approach to the likes of Lawry, Simpson & Cowdrey etc in the batting articles as more than 75% of their careers took place prior to 1970. In Sobers case 82% of his Tests were before 1970.

After 1998 Cairns averaged 43.2 with bat and 25.9 with ball in Tests. Cairns I rate Higher than Flintoff, and Shaun Pollock.
Intersitingly it’s not where I rate Pollock the better bowler issues, .

I rate Cairns the better bowler, and a little bit better batsmen but not by much. But Cairns had the ability , Ian botham like ability, to tear apart any team, anytime.
And he gave Shane Warne some real stick, smashing him all over the place sometimes, no easy feat. Both are better all rounders than Flintoff.

Chris Cairns in 2000 in NZ VS Australia series, had an awsome series. NZ bowling attack was injury riddled most of the series. no Geoff Allott who form memory was the leading wicket taker in the last 6 months in world cricket, Vettori missed the 1 st test test too from y, SImon Doull was out too for some tests, and DIon Nash, so injuries all over the place.

2 underrated all rounders
I always had a soft spot too for Abdul Razzaq, and Jacob Oram. When on fire Abdul Razzaq has one of the best eyes in cricket, boy could he bat when he got going, and was a good baler too, was much faster when younger,. He was much better batsmen than Wasim Akram, . And Jacob Oram was a big strong lad like Chris Cairns, and could bat and bowl just as well, was a big hitter and took wickets too, was about as good a bowler as Shane Watson, both these 2 were very handy cricketers, and underrated, but both had a lot of natural talent no question.
Oram has scored 4 centuries in 33 tests, Chris Cairns scored 5 centuries in 62 tests. Both were big hitters, and both had injury problems. But both could bat. And Jacob Oram is a very good fielder a big lad, a strong arm and good in the covers too.

And Jacob Oram has some impressive batting stats vs good teams to in some tough locations and significantly away form home to he can make runs, and a very good strike rate for test cricket, so the man can bat. And he could bowl too, let down like Cairns with a lot of injuries.

Tom Moody was handy but probably his bowling wasn’t good enough, but he is defiantly up there batting wise , Tom Moody would defiantly be a better batter than say Richard Hadlee, or Shaun Pollock or Flintoff to i would think. And he could bowl but more an ODI bowler than a test one.

Albe Morkel defiantly would have the batting ability but hasn’t been able to reach his potential with the ball so far, but a very talented all rounder.

Keiren Pollard is another man too look out for. He is as good a hitter as they come, and is a very useful bowler too. If he develops a bit more he could end up as one of the greta all rounders.

Dwayne Bravo is a another talented all rounder. 3 hundreds so far, and 2 5 wicket hauls. And stuart Broad I still think has the potential to develop into an all rounder. He has made some big scores too.

the talent is there though he has made a few 50’s but has disappointed no doubt. He is one of the biggest hitters in the game. Interestingly Chris Gayle is border line all rounder level now. He has taken 72 test wickets including 2 fiver’s.

Greg Matthews needs to be looked at to as one of the better all rounders,. A batting average of over 41 only fractionally higher than Mark Waugh 3 test centuries too, 61 test wicket’s and 2 fiver’s too.

Johnno, you surely cannot be serious about Greg Matthews. His wickets came at just under 50. And if you take out his ten wickets (his two fivers) in the Chennai Tied Test, in his other 32 Tests he averaged 53 per wicket.

Glen your right about Greg Matthews, I jumped the gun there. I got caught up in the hype that was Mo. Matthews was a handy batsmen, i rate a better batsmen than say Dan Vettori, . He had good states for NSW Mo with his off-spinners, but test cricket is a different standard. So Mo’s bowling is not good enough, but if Mo could bowl as well as the off-spinner Vettori then Mo would be taken seriously as a top class all rounder.

I honestly believe Shane Watson will be remembered as one of the best, particularly in limited overs cricket. His batting at test match level has been very good when you consider he’s balanced that with a very good bowling average and is opening the batting.

Ultimately injuries have cost him the opportunity to become a modern great.

For the benefit of fellow Roarers, I would like to mention the claims of Mike Procter as one of the finest all-rounders in the histroy of the game.

Procter played the last of his seven tests in early 1970, but age wise (b.1946), & under different circumstances, he would have played test cricket throughout the 70s.

His overall first class record is remarkably comparable to Imran Khan. Consequently, I have no hesitation in suggesting that Procter is behind Sobers & Kallis, on a par with Imran, & most probably ahead of all other all-rounders of the period. Of course, Ian Botham’s “big match” appetite must also be acknowledged.

I understand that Procter is disqualified from this discussion through no peronal fault of his own, but just as long as Roarers appreciate that he was very, very, very, very good. As was his fellow Saffie Clive Rice, who unfortunately played no test cricket at all.

Clive Rice was phenomenal but cannot be considered. Poor bugger. Agree on Proctor. When I visited my daughter in SA, I recall watching him play as a schoolboy in Natal at the private school he went to. He was incredible – joyously hitting sixes over the large gum trees! Great credit to the schools coaches in not trying to change his bowling action. Much later I saw a lot of him in England when he played for Gloucestershire and he was terrific – as a player and as a Captain.